


Leave Me Alone, I'm Lonely

by ivanolix



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Angst, Canon - TV, Canon Compliant, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Married Couple, POV Female Character, Season/Series 04, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-04
Updated: 2009-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivanolix/pseuds/ivanolix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara's figured out that sometimes they're closer when they're apart, and it's the only possibly sane piece of her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave Me Alone, I'm Lonely

Kara dismissed a deep, grudging admiration of the resurgence of Sam’s sneaky side. She was eating her algae, and there was no way she was going to think about that godsdamned frustrating man. He wasn’t even there, hadn’t been there.

But though Sam didn’t push, he only pretended to pull away. No, not pretend, not as if it was a ruse, just an honest tactic designed for his benefit and what he hoped was hers. What might be hers, if it was as simple as that. But though Kara tossed it at him in good times and in bad, the word “simple” only lived in Kara’s vocabulary under the sub-heading “What a Frakkin’ Joke”. And Sam and Kara alike knew that he wasn’t a joke. It would have been simpler if he was, ironically.

Sam went through everyone’s lives with an outward solidity that was not designed to fool the average man. Or it might be—she had never really asked. It was too easy to see the twists and turns underneath, but too convenient to provide a short label. Sam didn’t act out to defy labels, even though Kara suspected he shared her perverse pleasure in subverting them.

So here he was, playing the role of husband who was too scared and too courteous to trouble his half-crazy (whole crazy) wife with his Cylon presence. Playing it for no one, really, since the two people it involved were well aware of exactly what it was. And yet, that was its point. The role didn’t fit Sam, and so it was distracting. Gods-frakking distracting. So, not unlike Sam in general.

It had been a matter of fact to dismiss their life on Galactica when they were both on the Demetrius. He bunked with the crew more often than not, or kept silent sleeping vigil in the one spot of the room farthest from her bed. He distracted her when he wasn’t there, and he distracted her when he was. Sometimes she had to distract herself with him for a quick frak so he would lose focus and let her mind get free.

But back on Galactica, he didn’t have to work so hard, and the results were stronger, even if more subtle. She didn’t know what to think when she saw that he had been using her locker, and so she didn’t push him to get his own. She wasn’t sure anyone thought it was hers anymore, except Sam, who without comment started scooting his stuff to one side. But not taking it away; it was a sneaky concession.

He had probably been sleeping in her bunk, even being a viper nugget as he was. (And he really must not have been joking when he said he knew she’d be back, because it was typical Sam to join up just to frak with her mind, adding a war of pride and disdain for dependence to her mind about him.) He knew better than to push the same tactic there, but he also knew to just take the one next to her. And then come in after she was asleep and leave before she woke, but make sure it was obvious that he had been there. If he had been stupid, it might have been meant to make her miss him, if he had been oblivious, it might have been all it seemed to be, just trying to give her the space he thought she needed. But no, she noticed, and she didn’t quite miss him but she didn’t want him to play the avoidance game anymore.

She had her space, but he managed to be in it even when he wasn’t there, and he had to know it. There was no malice, no selfish manipulation in Sam; just careful, quiet, sneaky maneuvering. Maybe not sneaky, maybe covert. Damn, he even managed to get her to drop the snark in her head. Wherever he was, he probably knew his plan had worked, and yet there wouldn’t be a smirk. It would have given her an excuse to track down his transient ass and beat it. But that would have been a stupid mistake, and so far in this game, he hadn’t made one of those yet.

So Kara ate her algae, and glared and sneered at the people who dared to stare. Giving a reaction finished her deal with them, and they were all too easily providing opportunity. And after all, how had Sam figured out that his absence made him impossible to resolve and ignore?


End file.
